# Yoga

yoga (UK: , US: ; Sanskrit: योग 'yoga' [joːɡɐ] ; lit. 'yoke' or 'union') is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines that originated with its own philosophy in ancient India, aimed at controlling body and mind to attain various salvation goals, as practiced in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions. yoga may have pre-Vedic origins, but is first attested in the early first millennium BCE. It developed as various traditions in the eastern Ganges basin drew from a common body of practices, including Vedic elements. yoga-like practices are mentioned in the Rigveda and a number of early Upanishads, but systematic yoga concepts emerge during the fifth and sixth centuries BCE in ancient India's ascetic and Śramaṇa movements, including Jainism and Buddhism.